Comorbidity in specific language disorders and early feeding disorders: mother-child interactive patterns

This empirical study has its main object in highlighting the role of mother-child interactive experiences in the development of affective and communicative exchanges in infancy.

The study analyzed four groups of mother-child couples with children who presented a Specific Language Disorder (SLD) the first, a Feeding Disorder (FD) the second, the third an association of SLD and FD, and a fourth non clinical group. Diagnostic assessments were done through: a specific linguistic protocol, the Italian version of the Feeding Scale-Observational Scale for Mother-Infant Interactions during Feeding, specific psychodiagnostic questionnaires for mothers and children.

A distortion in the communication area can significantly weigh upon the quality of infant-caregiver relationship: our data on mothers of children with a SLD/FD comorbidity confirm this finding by describing their children as prone to isolation and withdrawal, thus directing their efforts and worries to a specifically communicative and relational factor.